In December 2015, Beijing issued a red alert, shuttering schools and restricting cars as pollution soared to ten times the WHO’s recommended limit. But this wasn’t new.

On June 4, 1913, a woman stepped onto the track during the Epsom Derby, one of Britain’s most prestigious horse races. As King George V’s horse, Anmer, galloped toward the finish line, she moved into its path.

At exactly 03:14:08 UTC on 19 January 2038, some computers will attempt to take one small step forward in time—and leap 136 years backward instead.

In the final years of World War II, a group of British prisoners of war inside Colditz Castle—Germany’s supposedly escape-proof Oflag IV-C camp—began secretly building a glider.

In the early 1800s, a cow named Craven Heifer drew enormous crowds not for what she did, but for the sheer scale of what she was.

In the Russian city of Tolyatti, best known for its massive AvtoVAZ car factory, one of the largest auto plants in the world, an unexpected sight draws visitors: a 90-meter-long Tango-class submarine sitting inland, far from any sea.

The Teacher in Orbit On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart just 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school teacher from New Hampshire. McAuliffe had been chosen from over 11,000 applicants to be the first civilian in space under NASA’s Teacher in Space

In 1760, French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil set sail from Paris with one goal: to observe the rare 1761 transit of Venus from Pondicherry, India.

In the summer of 1951, an unexpected rider stole the spotlight in Sweden’s most grueling cycling event.

In the 1950s, the Sizeland family purchased a speck of land in the Thousand Islands region of New York with a unique goal—to build a holiday retreat on what is now called Just Room Enough Island. Measuring about 3,300 square feet, the plot barely fits a house, a tree, and a few shrubs.